Something I love that we do here at TriYoung is meet after each sprint to determine what we liked, lacked, learned, and longed for. It is an Agile Retrospective, but we call it our ‘Post Game Meeting’ (PGM) because we like to use sport terminology. 😊
The Post Game meetings help us avoid repeating the same thing and expecting different results. These meetings are a team building exercise as well. We all work remote and in different states, so we use a virtual whiteboard to share our feedback. We start off with what we ‘liked’ about the sprint that just ended. This can be anything you liked from getting something accomplished to praising a team member or a client. We each create a virtual sticky note with our thoughts and add it to the virtual whiteboard. Once everyone has added their sticky notes, we take turns reading what we wrote and elaborating on why we wrote it.
Once everyone has taken a turn, we repeat the above process with what we ‘lacked’ which can be anything we feel would have made the last Sprint more successful. Examples of this could be wishing you were farther along in the project or that something went differently. Speaking about what was lacking can sometimes be uncomfortable especially in a group setting. But speaking about what was lacking, creates a conversation that may have never happened. With a team of people listening to the issue and brainstorming, we often find solutions quickly or can all agree to try a different process. Our team embraces change because we hear our teammates perspectives. We also are not afraid to try a new process because we know if it does not work, we can discuss it as a team and change the process again at the next PGM.
Next, the team moves on to what we ‘learned’ in the last sprint. This can be anything new to your knowledge base that was not there before this sprint. It can be as simple as learning about a new TriYoung, Inc. module to something you discovered while working on a project. We often find discussing what we learned during a sprint project can help us better prepare for future projects.
Lastly, we discuss what we ‘longed’ for in the last sprint. This is something we feel would have improved the process, implementation plan or just made us or the customer happier. This is an excellent opportunity to articulate problems to leadership, request a new tool or discuss a recommended process change.
Our PGMs help our team gather knowledge, insights, metrics, and artifacts from a completed sprint. The meetings also promote ownership and responsibility. This open forum allows the team the opportunity to understand the rationale behind all process decisions. We speak freely, own areas we lacked, and make recommendations. This process has allowed us to make each project more successful than the last and ensures we never stop learning.
